Micah 3

Then I said: "Listen, please, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Isn't it your job to know what is just?

1And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

Note"Jacob" and "Israel" are two names for the same ancestor, and both are used here to mean the nation descended from him. The "leaders" and "rulers" are the clan chiefs and officials who ran the courts; the Hebrew word behind "what is just" (mishpat) means both justice in general and the specific business of hearing cases and giving verdicts, which was their job.

2You hate what is good and love what is evil. You tear the skin off my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

2Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3You eat my people's flesh, pull off their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the pot, like flesh in a cooking kettle."

3Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

NoteThe butchering language is figurative. Micah describes officials stripping people of land, property and freedom in the words a cook would use for jointing an animal. The "cooking kettle" is the large pot in which meat was boiled, the ordinary equipment of a household or a sacrificial meal.

4Then those leaders will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them, because of the evil things they have done.

4Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

Note"Hide his face" is a standard Hebrew idiom for withdrawing favor and refusing to respond, the opposite of turning your face toward someone who is speaking to you.

5This is what the LORD says about the prophets who lead my people the wrong way: when someone feeds them, they chew their food and announce, "All is well." But against anyone who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare war.

5Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

NoteProphets were normally consulted in person and paid with food or a fee, so "who feeds them" is literal: these prophets shape the message to fit the payment. "All is well" translates shalom, safety, health, prosperity, nothing to worry about. "Declare war" uses the language for formally launching a sacred war; here it means pronouncing doom on the person who paid nothing.

6"So night will come over you, and you will have no visions. Darkness will cover you, and you will have nothing to foretell. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

6Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

NoteDivination means seeking word about the future by set techniques, reading omens, casting lots, interpreting dreams. Visions and dreams were expected to come at night, so "night without visions" is pointed: the very time the message should arrive will bring nothing.

7Then the seers will be ashamed and the fortune-tellers disgraced. They will all cover their mouths, because there is no answer from God."

7Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

Note"Seer" is an older word for a prophet, literally, one who sees. Covering the mouth or upper lip was a public gesture of shame and mourning, and was also required of a person declared ritually unclean; here it marks men who have nothing left to say.

8But as for me, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and strength, to tell Jacob what he has done wrong and to tell Israel his sin.

8But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9Listen to this, please, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. You hate justice and twist everything that is fair.

9Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

10You build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with wrongdoing.

10They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

NoteZion was originally the fortified ridge in Jerusalem that David captured; the name came to stand for the temple hill and for the city as a whole. Building "with bloodshed" points to building projects paid for by extortion, seized property and forced labor.

11Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean on the LORD and say, "Isn't the LORD here among us? Nothing bad can happen to us."

11The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

NoteThese three groups were the three recognized channels of guidance in Israel: rulers gave legal verdicts, priests gave rulings on what was clean and permitted, and prophets delivered messages from God. All three were normally supported by the community; the charge is that each now sells the answer. "Lean on" means rely on for support, as on a staff. Their confidence rests on the belief that the LORD's presence in the Jerusalem temple made the city itself safe from capture.

12So because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the hill where the temple stands will become a wooded ridge.

12Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

NotePlowing the site of a city means destruction so complete that the ground goes back to farmland; "a heap of rubble" is the mound of debris left where buildings stood. "The hill where the temple stands" is the KJV's "mountain of the house." The KJV's "high places of the forest" describes a bare hilltop overgrown with scrub, the same word used for the open-air hilltop shrines of the region. This particular sentence was still remembered a century later and was quoted at Jeremiah's trial (Jeremiah 26:18) as a prophecy that had not been punished.